I have loads of pet gripes, one tends to collect them with age, but I have 2 concerning cooking that gets me going every time.

1 .. Every time you see a picture of a roast leg of lamb in adverts for supermarkets, there is a slice cut to show the nice pink meat inside. This slice is always without fail cut along the grain of the meat, and therefore going to be tough.
I was taught that a leg of lamb should be carved into the leg, from the outside to the bone, i.e. across the grain. Then it will be tender as you are eating short muscle fibres, instead of long ones.
The problem I have with the pictures is that way of carving will be copied by the younger generation as the correct way.

2 .. Still on cooking, when you see a "celebrity" chef cooking a dish with all the ingredients ready prepared in individual small dishes, nearly EVERY TIME he/she will only use about half of the pre-prepared ingredients. Presumably the other half gets thrown away as you never see it again (or a second meal prepared to go in the freezer)
What sort of message is that to give to anyone learning to cook in this day and age of unnecessary waste?

3 .. those same "celebrity" chefs have each ingredient in a separate bowl, use another bowl to mix something, then transfer the contents to another bowl to mix something else, then another....... You can tell they don't do their own washing up.

Maybe we should move this thread to the 101 section - I can see it running to that.

Maggie

Never doubt that you can change history. You already have. Marge Piercy

4. Packaging on vegetables. I avoid supermarkets as much as I can, but can't always find time to shop local so when the devil drives. But why does a cabbage need to be shrink wrapped, just for you to find a big mouldy patch under where the label goes. Likewise for all supermarket fruit n veg. My fresh local stuff always lasts miles longer than things I buy packaged. Plus we have to dispose of the packet, mostly unrecyclable and filling what little space we have in the refuse bin.

I tend to quite a few gardens as a living or at least as part of it. There are a couple of things I'd class as gripes. Firstly is wire netting or specfically netting around anywhere that needs trimming as it makes it virtually impossible to trim anything without catching ones tools on the wire and damaging one or the other. Grass and weeds seem to have a habit of intertwining in the netting or sprouting from behind and making it extremely awkward to tidy it all up.
Other gripe has to be gravel again especially next to lawns and the like . Harsh on tools and somehow seems to migrate onto the lawn just to await the mower . Then some have it far too deep on drives , one for instance makes it almost impossible to wheel the mower across as it sinks and I end up having to carry it.

My customer with the far too deep gravel on the drive has now decided to turn some of her borders over to gravel and stones. Part of the decision was based on rabbits eating some of the stufff she had planted and part on the notion that it makes maintainence easier. I'm not at all convinced it makes for easier maintenance but I am convinced it makes the place look more bland and sterile .

The one with the deep gravel gets dubbed "the incredible moaning woman" . Generally it goes in one ear and out the other although at times I've had to bite my tongue. A little while ago she was saying that her job was more important " because I've got six horses" and did go on to say that people don't realise how much work is involved having six horses. I almost felt like telling her horses don't make her any more important and I thought that most people do realise how much work is involved which is why most people don't have six bloody horses. I was discrete though and said nothing.
Then there was another old guy who had a sloping uneven bit of grass surrrounded by conifers and beech trees assessable only by taking the mower down a flight of stairs who expected it to look like a bowling green , didn't really want to pay for it and had to have it done at a certain time so that I "didn't disturb him with his horses" . And they weren't actual horses , he was referring to the horse racing pages in the paper we fell out after not long.

Sorry Skip but having horses does make them most important people in the world, just ask them. The Prado (not a typo) Princesses around here have an absolute priority on the road with their huge floats and insist their packaged dog food on legs be given right of way.

And advised or expected to buy and consume or buy not consume and throw away far too much food as well. Still keeps the income for gyms going over January.
Weedo , thanks for pointing out just how wrong I am and just how important those who take it as a civil duty to shovel poop day after day are.

not just a seasonal gripe Skip, seems to be more and more of these "events" every year including adopting Halloween from the yanks (NOT All Hallows Evening). We now prefer to only buy one gift per grandchild but give a cash gift to the parents which is much apreciated (drip feed the inheritance?) Mrs W and I give each other something smallish (symbolic) but actually buy each other birthday, anniversary, christmas gifts any any time of the year that suits needs.

But, I follow my mothers traditions for Christmas meals - feed everyone & anyone, feed them till they groan then feed them again. For her generation christmas was a time of plenty when the rest of the year was very lean.

This is a gripe that really really gets to me and is more amd more common these days!!!!!!

First picture below is a grub screw - a small screw that goes into a matching hole on a cog or sprocket to hold it onto shaft. As you can see it is a simple thing. This one is the last of 4 that SHOULD be in cogs in a piece of farm machinery I bought a year ago. Investigating a rattle I found the cogs almost off the shafts and the grub screws missing - obviously either not put in or not tightened properly ex factory.

This is NOT my gripe!

OK, calmly and using polite language, refit the cogs,drive to town and get a few grub screws to replace the missing ones. Now comes the gripe! I couldn't buy the item individually or even in a pack of 6(ish) any where. To get 3 to replace the lost ones I had to buy a pack of 240 assorted ones! I can't see a use for the remaining 237